Hyatt Triptease Price Comparison Widget Scam

When you book hotels on various sites today, they try to make you believe that you have found the lowest price by comparing their prices to those of competitors.

There is a dirty secret behind these comparison widgets. They are not usually real and only show agents/OTA’s that are offering rooms at a higher price. I run into situation exactly like this last week with Hyatt and can demonstrate it clearly.

Note that the Hyatt Regency Tokyo has nothing to do with the Triptease. It is displayed for those that book through Hyatt’s website.

Here’s search using no discount/corporate codes:

The price on Hyatt’s website is “the best” according to the Triptease and it tries to prove this by displaying prices from three OTA’s.

Here’s search using discount/corporate codes:

The headline price went lower and now Triptease also displays the price from Ctrip that it excluded previously because it was 38% lower than Hyatt’s standard rate.

Here’s what Triptease says when you click the widget:

Verified by Triptease

This price check was performed by an independent 3rd party to make sure we’re providing the best prices to people booking direct.

The prices you see are the cheapest prices currently being quoted by the online travel agents matching your search. To ensure we are making a fair comparison, we always use the same search criteria (dates, number of adults, children, ages and price conditions: taxes, fees, and currency conversion rate).

Here’s the response that we received from the Hyatt spokesperson:

At Hyatt, we are committed to providing exceptional customized experiences for our guests in- and outside our hotels. Driven by our belief that direct relationships are the foundation for delivering personalized experiences, we recently integrated a software solution widely used throughout the industry with Hyatt.com to better serve our loyal members and guests.

Conclusion

Price comparison widget that says that “You have found the best price” when Ctrip is selling the same room for 38% less and will show that in comparison too if you plug in a code. This is highly misleading and likely fraud in countries with strong consumer protection.

Not sure how Hyatt management believes that behavior such as this would be acceptable?